1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a member for guiding the harness cords of a weaving loom harness of Jacquard type. It also relates to a Jacquard harness incorporating such a member, and to a process for manufacturing such a member. Finally, the invention relates to a weaving loom comprising such a member and/or such a harness.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
In the domain of weaving looms of Jacquard type, it is known to guide harness cords constituting a harness by means of a perforated board disposed in the vicinity of the Jacquard system, i.e. in the upper part of the superstructure of the loom, and by means of a comberboard installed above the shed-forming zone, these two boards allowing the harness cords to be distributed in space. The harness cords thus follow angular paths defined by the holes that they traverse, in the perforated board and comberboard respectively. Taking into account the angles of these paths with respect to the vertical, considerable frictions are generated at the level of these holes, this causing overheating and premature wear of the harness cords.
In order to reduce this wear, it may be envisaged to work on the structure of the harness cords, as indicated in FR-A-2 711 997. However, the paths of the harness cords can be very tortuous, particularly for the cords intended to control the heddles close to the selvedges of the fabric. For these cords, the angles of inclination of the strands of the harness cords located above the comberboard are such that considerable localized stresses are exerted on these cords, this inducing forces of friction and high risks of rupture. In that case, the operational speed of the loom must be reduced, which leads to a loss of production.
It is also known from GB-A-151 761 to incline comberboards whose structure is conventional per se. A structure for guiding harness cords incorporating such inclined comberboards takes up considerable space in height. It induces complex adjustments and the use of sophisticated supports, which renders it expensive and cumbersome when used. Finally, this structure is not efficient if the cords have different inclinations between the Jacquard system and a given board.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a novel structure of a member for guiding harness cords, which limits overheating and risks of rupture of these cords while allowing higher performances of the loom.